Weather or not
The quote from a former NHL goalie made me laugh so hard I nearly spit out my morning coffee: “How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?”
I laughed extra hard because he could have been talking about being a meteorologist. Good-natured ribbing, glowing compliments and harsh criticism all come with the territory when you are a television weatherman or weatherwoman and I genuinely enjoy talking about the weather with anyone and everyone.
Some people don’t like to take their work home with them, but I can’t leave mine at the office. That means every minute of every day, on duty or off, on vacation or in the middle of grocery shopping, someone will ask about the weather. You’re on call 24/7 every day of the year. When someone at the gym asks whether it will rain this weekend or a diner at the next table inquires whether we’ll have a hot summer, I enjoy being able to help them with weather information.
Then there are those folks who blindly say, “Nice weather we’re having.” I never know whether they’d really like to discuss the forecast or just said it without realizing or remembering that I forecast weather for a living. In “Groundhog Day”, the innkeeper quips to Bill Murray’s weatherman character that there’s talk of a blizzard. He replies with a detailed forecast then asks, “Did you want to talk about the weather or were you just making chitchat?”
The ones who really get me are those who consistently spread bad information. They’ll insist it’s going to storm even though we’re under a ridge of high pressure with a low dew point, no wind shear or lift and zero chance of precipitation. How should I respond? There’s no winning.
Telling them their “forecast” is incorrect or that they must have misheard or misread the latest outlook is opening the door to an argument. I can’t agree because the information is wrong. I’ve learned the best approach is to just smile, ignore it and change the subject to something like, “How about those Pirates?”
I always wonder if other people get criticized about their work. Stockbrokers and judges have it rough if they make a poor decision. Security cameras, cellphones and social media have made our every move fair game for viral videos and it seems people are criticized and judged more now than ever.
No one wants to get it wrong and meteorologists these days get it right most of the time despite what our detractors say. Political pollsters predicting elections or sportscasters predicting game winners may feel the same heat, however the outcomes of those events depend on human behavior rather than science. You would think science would be more predictable than humans, but you would be wrong.
Then a big red light will go on and 18,000 people will boo.
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.